A Busselton great-grandfather was so busy caring for his elderly mother that he almost missed the phone call telling him he had won more than $650,000 in Lotto.
The man, in his 70s, was one of 10 division one winners across Australia in the Saturday Lotto draw on August 22 — but did not discover his life-changing win for more than two weeks.
He had been ignoring calls from an unfamiliar number before finally answering one from Lotterywest.
But even then, the full-time carer was too busy looking after his mother to properly take in what he was being told.
“I’d been dodging calls from a number I didn’t recognise for a couple of weeks,” he said.
“Then when Lotterywest finally got through to me, I fobbed them off because I was busy with Mum and wasn’t really listening to what they were saying.
“The caller asked me to call them back and I promptly forgot about it!”
When Lotterywest eventually got through again, the reality of his win began to sink in.
The winner, who bought a $6.60 System 7 ticket online, had used birthday numbers to land a total of $652,714, including other division prizes.
But he has kept the news largely under wraps.
His 91-year-old mother is the only family member who knows — and the pair are planning to celebrate with a Chinese takeaway.
“Mum loves Chinese takeout,” he said.
“We also regularly have five-generations family days, so I’ll shout everyone to a Chinese meal and share the news with them all then.”
The winning numbers were 9, 11, 2, 1, 13 and 20, with supplementary numbers 28 and 45.
Lotterywest spokeswoman Jennie Fitzhardinge said the winner’s reliance on birthdays was common among players choosing their own numbers.
“We often see more division one winners when lower numbers are drawn because so many players choose birthdays and other significant dates,” she said.
There were three division one winners in WA from the draw.